The Iron Giant was released back in 1999, and was directed by Brad Bird (who has gone on to make a lot of the excellent Pixar movies) and how now (sadly) moved into films starring real people, well, actors anyway.
I still find it hard to believe that The Iron Giant isn't listed on everyone's top 10 animated movies list, and even more surprising that a lot of people have never even seen it.
It has to be one of my favourite animated movies and I still smile at the Superman scene. This movie had it all, great characters, great story, great robot design and heart.
It was based in a book called The Iron Man written in 1968 by Ted Hughes and if memory serves, it keeps fairly closely to the overall plot.
David Hitchcock is one of those UK creators who really deserves to have made it big in the profession. He's created a number of UK Independent comic favourites and is an Eagle Award winner. Most of Dave's work plays back to Victorian times and he captures the mood so well with his pencil work. Dropping the Iron Giant into that time period works really well, as you can see.